What can't you be arrested for under the terrorism act?
...and so it continues, with the Govt continuing to f*ck for virginity as they 'fight' terrorism - defending freedom by destroying it.
To (roughly) quote Chomsky: "a key way to avoid suffering from terrorism is to stop participating in it."
The question
What can't you be arrested for under the terrorism act?
Lucy Mangan
Tuesday October 18 2005
The Guardian
If an octogenarian can be threatened with arrest for shouting "Nonsense" during a party conference speech or if, as we heard yesterday, a woman can be arrested and detained for walking along a cycle path in Dundee, the implication might seem to be; not much.
To avoid the risk of incarceration, you could try only walking or talking in areas where the act does not apply. Unfortunately, you won't necessarily know where these are. A "designated area" where it is deemed "expedient for the prevention of acts of terrorism" for the police to be able to stop and search people at will is defined by chief constables and authorised by the home secretary without any further judicial or parliamentary input or notification of the public. So you will rarely be alerted to the fact that you are entering an area which has set aside the customary law of the land, including the presumption of innocence.
Then - and this is the really fun part - if you are searched and discovered to be carrying anything the officer thinks could be used in connection with terrorism, you can be arrested. There's a lot of leeway in "could be used in connection with".
"A journalist's notebook with a cabinet minister's name and phone number in it, perhaps," suggests Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty. "A bag of sugar could be used as an explosive with other materials. A mobile phone is a potential detonator."
You could try not carrying anything when you go out, but no keys, money or phone may lessen your fun and, anyway, is probably suspicious in itself.
The Home Office offers no comfort. "It's an operational matter for the police force," says a spokeswoman. "It's up to them to act in the context of a situation so it's not for us to rule out X, Y or Z. Taking a dog for a walk in a dockyard - it's up to the police to decide if they pose a risk or not. There are no circumstances where we could say it can't be used."
So there you have it. Your continued existence without falling foul of anti- terrorist legislation depends solely on the limits of an increasingly jittery police force's imagination. Let's be careful out there.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
To (roughly) quote Chomsky: "a key way to avoid suffering from terrorism is to stop participating in it."
The question
What can't you be arrested for under the terrorism act?
Lucy Mangan
Tuesday October 18 2005
The Guardian
If an octogenarian can be threatened with arrest for shouting "Nonsense" during a party conference speech or if, as we heard yesterday, a woman can be arrested and detained for walking along a cycle path in Dundee, the implication might seem to be; not much.
To avoid the risk of incarceration, you could try only walking or talking in areas where the act does not apply. Unfortunately, you won't necessarily know where these are. A "designated area" where it is deemed "expedient for the prevention of acts of terrorism" for the police to be able to stop and search people at will is defined by chief constables and authorised by the home secretary without any further judicial or parliamentary input or notification of the public. So you will rarely be alerted to the fact that you are entering an area which has set aside the customary law of the land, including the presumption of innocence.
Then - and this is the really fun part - if you are searched and discovered to be carrying anything the officer thinks could be used in connection with terrorism, you can be arrested. There's a lot of leeway in "could be used in connection with".
"A journalist's notebook with a cabinet minister's name and phone number in it, perhaps," suggests Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty. "A bag of sugar could be used as an explosive with other materials. A mobile phone is a potential detonator."
You could try not carrying anything when you go out, but no keys, money or phone may lessen your fun and, anyway, is probably suspicious in itself.
The Home Office offers no comfort. "It's an operational matter for the police force," says a spokeswoman. "It's up to them to act in the context of a situation so it's not for us to rule out X, Y or Z. Taking a dog for a walk in a dockyard - it's up to the police to decide if they pose a risk or not. There are no circumstances where we could say it can't be used."
So there you have it. Your continued existence without falling foul of anti- terrorist legislation depends solely on the limits of an increasingly jittery police force's imagination. Let's be careful out there.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
heidless (9:08 pm)
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